# slice

> English word · Noun · IPA /slaɪs/ · frequency rank #7,180

## Definitions
1. That which is thin and broad.
2. A thin, broad piece cut off.
3. An amount of anything.
4. A piece of pizza, shaped like a sector of a circle.
5. A snack consisting of pastry with savoury filling.
6. A broad, thin piece of plaster.
7. A knife with a thin, broad blade for taking up or serving fish; also, a spatula for spreading anything, as paint or ink.
8. A salver, platter, or tray.
9. A plate of iron with a handle, forming a kind of chisel, or a spadelike implement, variously proportioned, and used for various purposes, as for stripping the planking from a vessel's side, for cutting blubber from a whale, or for stirring a fire of coals; a slice bar; a peel; a fire shovel.
10. One of the wedges by which the cradle and the ship are lifted clear of the building blocks to prepare for launching.
11. A removable sliding bottom to a galley.
12. A shot that (for the right-handed player) curves unintentionally to the right. See fade, hook, draw.
13. A kind of cut shot where the bat makes an obtuse angle with the batter.
14. Any of a class of heavy cakes or desserts made in a tray and cut out into squarish slices.
15. A section of image taken of an internal organ using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography), or various forms of x-ray.
16. A hawk's or falcon's dropping which squirts at an angle other than vertical. (See mute.)
17. A contiguous portion of an array.

## Etymology
From Middle English sclise, sklise, from Old French esclice, esclis (“a piece split off”), deverbal of esclicer, esclicier (“to splinter, split up”), from Frankish *slitjan (“to split up”), from Proto-Germanic *slitjaną, from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to split, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyd- (“to rend, injure, crumble”). Akin to Old High German sliz, gisliz (“a tear, rip”), Old High German slīȥan (“to tear”), Old English slītan (“to split up”), modern French éclisse. More at slite, slit.

## Easily confused with
- **slip** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slip)
- **slim** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slim)
- **slid** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slid)
- **slit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slit)
- **space** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-space)
- **stick** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-stick)
- **smile** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-smile)
- **slide** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slide)
- **suite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-suite)
- **spite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-spite)
- **spike** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-spike)
- **spice** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-spice)
- **spine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-spine)
- **slope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slope)
- **spicy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-spicy)
- **slick** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slick)
- **slips** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slips)
- **swipe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-swipe)
- **swine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-swine)
- **slime** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slice-vs-slime)

## Common misspellings (7)
`lsice`, `silce`, `slcie`, `slicce`, `sliec`, `sllice`, `sslice`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/slice